Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures

Applicant: Wuqiang County, Hebei Province

Project No.: 301

Project No.: Ⅶ - 2

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Hebei Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Wuqiang County, Hebei Province

Protection unit: Wuqiang New Year pictures Museum

Introduction to Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures:

Applicant: Wuqiang County, Hebei Province

Wuqiang county is a famous town of folk New Year pictures, located in the central Hebei Plain, in the southeast of Hebei Province, under the jurisdiction of Hengshui City. Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures have strong local flavor and local characteristics, and its rich content is the "Encyclopedia" of Chinese civil society life.

According to the existing data, Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures were produced in the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty. Because of the changes of geographical and traffic conditions, it gradually declined. The war in the Republic of China led to the rapid shrinkage of woodcut New Year pictures industry in Wuqiang, with only 40 painting workshops open for business. In the early 1940s, artists of Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures and art workers in Shanxi Chahar Hebei border region jointly founded "Jizhong New Year pictures Research Society". In 1947, Shijiazhuang public art society was established on this basis, thus Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures were revived and innovated. After 1949, 40 painting workshops in Wuqiang county were merged into Wuqiang painting factory. In 1985, Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures museum was established. In 1993, Wuqiang county was named "the hometown of Chinese woodcut New Year pictures" by the Ministry of culture.

Wuqiang woodblock New Year pictures are produced by traditional manual woodblock overprint. In terms of subject matter, there are not only traditional characters, landscapes, flowers and birds, but also contemporary real life and current affairs news, especially the promotion of traditional virtues. Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures have dozens of forms, such as door painting, stove painting, nave painting, couplet painting, window pattern painting, lamp square painting, Dou square painting, strip screen painting, calendar painting, Kang Wai painting, etc., which fully express the thoughts and feelings of the lower common people. It has spread into thousands of families in the happy atmosphere of farewell to the old and welcome the new, and is very popular among the masses.

With the change of society and the change of people's concept of life, Wuqiang woodcut New Year pictures are facing the severe situation that people have gone to art, so it is urgent to rescue and protect them.